CDC reports 8% uninsured rate in 2025, with potential increases expected this year

(SeaPRwire) –   According to new findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the share of Americans without health insurance remained steady at around 8% of the total population in 2025.

The national survey data, published Thursday, shows that the all-ages uninsured rate is still significantly lower than it was several years ago. However, the number of uninsured people could soon grow as the Trump administration’s sweeping overhauls to the U.S. health system start to take effect.

Major changes to Medicaid — the government’s public safety-net health program for low-income Americans — that were signed into law last year could lead to 10 million more uninsured people over a 10-year period, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

In addition, the expiration of certain Affordable Care Act subsidies this year, which previously helped cover health insurance premium costs, is also pushing fewer people to participate in ACA marketplace health plans. Healthcare research nonprofit KFF projects that roughly 5 million fewer people will sign up for these plans in 2026 than in 2025.

The U.S. government runs multiple programs to track Americans’ insurance status, which can produce different numbers based on factors such as timing and how survey questions are worded. David Howard, a professor of health policy and management at Emory University, says most researchers view the U.S. Census Bureau as “the official scorekeeper” for this data.

But the CDC’s survey results align closely with Census Bureau data, and they deliver the first full set of data for the entire year of 2025 — which is the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

The Trump administration has pushed to expand access to low-premium catastrophic health insurance plans and lower drug costs for uninsured Americans. The administration has also argued that projected drops in insurance enrollment reflect a decline in fraudulent and ineligible enrollees, rather than eligible people losing coverage.

While the overall share of insured versus uninsured Americans stayed roughly the same in 2025 as the year before, the absolute number of uninsured people grew by about 800,000, 300,000 of whom are children. Growth of the overall U.S. population helps explain this increase.

The survey results also hint at a possible higher insured rate among Hispanic Americans. But Howard says this could partially reflect the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, if uninsured Hispanic people left the country.

Most Americans aged 65 and older get health insurance through the federal Medicare program. The situation is different for younger Americans, many of whom are covered through a patchwork of public and private insurance plans.

The share of uninsured Americans under 65 rose through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, climbing from 12% in 1980 to more than 18% in 2010. The rate fell after the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, which expanded Medicaid and put new policies in place to make affordable health coverage accessible to more people.

By 2016, the rate dropped to nearly 10%, before rising to between 11% and 12% during Trump’s first term, according to historical survey data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the uninsured rate fell again, thanks to government policies implemented to maintain coverage for people facing pandemic-related disruptions. The rate hit an all-time low in 2023, falling below 9%.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives funding support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all of its content.